missing days
by AGENT Kuma-chan
Summary: For the second time, their home was destroyed. They couldn't take a third. -Tifa, Cloud, Aerith, Barret, Red XIII, Vincent
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** missing days

 **A/N:** So, I'm just writing a bunch of scenes missing from the game as I went through it. Technically it's connected to my previous attempt at this, but since it's been a few years since that, I'm just putting it as a separate story

 **Summary:** They never really had a choice.

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 **1\. Friends**

"Oh, that's one of my flowers," Aerith said, surprised as she leaned forward to inspect the flower in Tifa's pack.

Tifa flushed a dark red. Cloud rarely gave her anything and she couldn't leave it behind. After pinning it to her pack, she'd forgotten about it.

"I…" Tifa swallowed hard, there had to be a way out of this. If only Barret had found it instead.

"I remember selling some to Cloud." Aerith glanced at Tifa with a sly grin on her face. "So they were for you?"

"And-and Marlene too," Tifa replied, flustered. That grin promised endless teasing.

"Is that so?" Aerith frowned, disappointed. "Too bad."

Quickly, Tifa changed the topic before Aerith could probe any further. "You know where to find flowers?"

"Sort of." Aerith smiled brightly, remembering her flowers and the church. Getting up, she dusted her skirt. "Actually, I grow them."

Tifa stared, amazed. She knew firsthand how impossible the task was. "Wow, I tried it a few times, but they kept dying."

"Well, you can't grow them everywhere and it is hard, but if you know the right places…" Aerith's voice trailed up, before she leaned closer to Tifa, as though telling a secret. "Want me to show it to you later?"

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 **2\. Pretty Woman**

"He looked surprisingly good in that dress," Tifa commented, her voice echoing softly in the sewer tunnels. As they walked, she looked behind her every few minutes—as rear guard, she couldn't let any monsters slip by her.

"I know, I didn't think it would work as well as it did," Aerith replied, grinning mischievously.

Tifa glanced in front of her but the coast was clear. Luckily for him, Cloud was far ahead of them, scouting the route. He had been embarrassed enough when she saw him in the dress. Hearing this would have made his ears beet red.

Picking her way through the sludge, Tifa shook her head at the memory. "Though, those heels…"

Aerith giggled. "He didn't get the hang of it before we went."

"I thought so, he almost tumbled down the stairs." Tifa laughed. "I thought he'd just roll all the way down."

Aerith shook her head sadly, wiping imaginary tears from her eyes. "All the beauty but none of the grace. Just why the Don picked him over us, I will never know."

"It must have been his good looks. You know men…" Tifa drawled.

Ahead of them, she could spot their friend making his way back to them. "You okay?" Cloud called out, jogging to them. "You're walking slowly."

"We're just admiring a great lady," Aerith replied with a wink.

Tifa snorted.

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 **3\. Crater**

"You ok?" Barret asked, concerned as Tifa fell to her knees. She could barely hear him. A high-pitched keening drowned out everything else, the remnants of the explosion they just barely escaped.

Shaking her head, she could only stare at the sight in front of her. Sector 3 was a fiery crater, a mess of rubble and smoke. She could smell it, the stench of charred bodies, the scent of death.

It was happening again.

Just like five years ago, she was losing everything again. Losing everyone again.

For the second time, her home was destroyed.

She didn't think she could take a third.

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 **4\. Fire**

The fires didn't stop, not for the rest of the night. Black pillars rose from the ground, smoke covering what little sky they had. Even though he could see that Marlene was safe, Barret couldn't stop shaking.

Another hometown was lost thanks to Shinra. Another group of friends died, fighting for his cause. For his ideas.

He shouldn't have survived. Not again, not when Jesse or someone else could have lived. There were only so many times he could make the same mistakes.

At least he wasn't alone this time. He looked at Cloud, at Tifa, and gritted his teeth.

There would be no third time. He damn sure would make sure of it with his own hands.

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 **5\. goodnight**

"Goodnight, Marlene," Barret whispered, his voice low so the others wouldn't hear. The wilderness was surprisingly quiet compared to the city.

Above him, he could see a blanket of stars. Marlene would have loved to see that—it was hard to see even a piece of the sky in Midgar, let alone all of this.

This world was so vast. Just how far would he go from home? It could be months before he saw Marlene again. Maybe years.

"I love you."

It would be a long time before he could hear a reply.

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 **6\. Hometowns**

"So you lost your hometown too?" Tifa asked, sitting next to Barret. It was surprising, really, to find out that for all the time she was with Barret, she never really knew him.

Then again, he hadn't known her either.

"Yeah," Barret stared into the fire, remembering. "Only Marlene and I survived."

His tone made it clear that he didn't want to discuss it.

Tifa swallowed, looking into the fire herself. It was all too easy to see the fires from that day again. She didn't want to remember.

She couldn't forget.

"Yeah, same here."

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 **7\. fire**

Some nights, she dreamed of fire. The heat from the flames, the smoke in the air, she could still feel it all. It coated her lungs a dark black of despair.

In the distance, Zack yelled. A soldier caught her as she fell—she could have sworn he reminded her of someone, but she had been too weak to remember.

As she dreamed, as she remembered, she unconsciously rubbed the scars on her back.

She would never be able to forget that night no matter how hard she tried.

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 **8\. Swings**

"These swings…" Tifa's voice trailed off as she approached the broken playground. She'd taken Marlene here to play, on the slow days when they weren't planning a mission.

Barret couldn't speak, he just stood frozen in the middle. Next to him was the see-saw that he and Marlene used to play on, before he had broken it. And next to that was the home tree, the tree Marlene was supposed to run to if they ever got separated.

Tifa turned around, staring at all these places, at all these things that were once the makings of a home.

Now they were nothing more than rubble.

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 **9\. President**

"He's dead," someone said. It might be her, she wasn't sure. Her eyes were trained on the dead president, on his slowly cooling body.

He caused so much misery, so many problems, and now he was dead. She should be more shocked, she knew. A little sad or even worried about who did this.

Instead, Tifa swallowed. Her comrades were avenged and all she could feel was a sick satisfaction.

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 **10\. Goodbye**

"Worried?" Aerith asked, suddenly sitting next to Barret. It was still his turn to keep watch and he looked at the girl next to him surprise.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked, tossing another log into the fire.

"Not yet," Aerith replied easily. He wasn't sure what to make of this teasing slip of a girl. Only there were a lot of battles ahead of them and he wasn't sure if she could handle it. "So, are you worried?"

"Of what?" Barret scoffed, not understanding the point of the question. Sure, they had no idea where they were going or what to do next, but those were short term things. He'd figure something out, he always had, and then they'll destroy Shinra.

"For your daughter." Aerith looked at him now, as though she saw right through him.

He frowned, remembering how they had parted. His daughter had been so small in his arms, so fragile. His voice was clipped, thick with memories as he replied, "...a little."

Aerith hummed, understanding. She sounded a little wistful as she consoled him. "She's safe with my mom."

"I know...I just...I wish I could have said goodbye to her." Barret sighed.

"Yeah…" Aerith grew quiet, probably thinking of her mother. Her voice was low and he strained to hear it when she replied, "Yeah, me too."


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** ghosts of memories

 **A/N:** I paraphrased a bit some of the scenes. :/ Also, haven't played crisis core, so as far as I know, Aerith hasn't met Sephiroth and when they think he's an ancient, she believes that.

 **Summary:** He sleeps and dreams and even there he cannot escape reality.

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 **1\. Return Trip**

"We can't go back, can we?" Aerith asked, looking back at the city as they made their way through the rocky terrain.

Tifa gaped at her in disbelief. After all they had to go through to leave Midgard, there was no way they'd be able to go back. Not right now at least. "No."

"Too bad." Aerith sighed.

"Did you forget something?" Tifa asked, worried.

"No...I just, I wanted to say goodbye to my mom. But I guess I can't do that now." Aerith looked back at the city again, troubled.

"Oh." Tifa stared at the ground. She never got to say goodbye either, three years ago.

Had she even managed to see her father that night? She couldn't remember now, the fire and smoke clouding her memory.

"But…" Tifa gave Aerith a wan smile. "You can always come back and do it later."

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 **2\. Expression**

Cloud recalled that night in flashes, in bits and pieces that barely connected with each other. He remembered blood and fire, remembered carrying Tifa's limp body. The shock of betrayal had paralyzed him at first, the sight of her injuries spurred him to action.

"And that's what happened," Cloud concluded, looking at the group.

Looking at Tifa, he started to doubt his memories. Something didn't feel right and her expression only confirmed it.

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 **4\. Lies**

"I came with Sephiroth to Nebilim three years ago," Cloud started.

Tifa stared at him. His story wasn't wrong, not really—everything he said played out perfectly to her memory.

But he hadn't been there. That wasn't his story but Zack's.

"Cloud…"

"Yeah?" Cloud asked, pausing his story.

"Nothing," Tifa lied, biting her cheek as she looked away. The truth of that day laid heavy in her chest but she had no idea what it meant.

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 **5\. Friends**

"Sephiroth…" Cloud muttered, clenching his fist as he recalled that night. They had been friends, once.

They had been friends and now they were enemies.

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 **6\. Deception**

"Tifa." Cloud went next to his friend, grabbing her wrist when she tried to leave. "What is it?"

Tifa frowned, yanking her hand free. "It's nothing."

"You're hiding something." He had seen her expression when he had told the story, had heard the tone of her voice when she spoke. Cloud had said something wrong, he was sure of it. Even his own memories seemed a little hazy, a little off, but he couldn't tell why.

Not on his own at least.

" _It's_ _nothing_ ," Tifa repeated.

"Tifa," he said sharply. "Please."

She bit her lip and turned around. "I just need some time to think it through. Ok?"

Her shoulders shook and he didn't force the matter. "Ok."

In the meantime, he'd have to figure it out himself.

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 **7\. Extinction**

"So you're the last one," Red XII muttered, staring into the fire. Aerith smiled sadly at him, nodding. "Me too."

Aerith looked up at the stars. "We're all that's left, then."

Red XII laid his head in the dirt. It was strange, thinking of the word extinction and applying it to himself. More so when using it for the girl next to him.

"I guess that means we have to live for all of them," she added.

He snorted. "Then we really shouldn't be fighting like this."

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 **8.** **Possibilities**

So he was an Ancient like her. Aerith blinked, the idea strange. Another Ancient. For so long, she had thought she was the only one.

But she hadn't been. The voices she heard, they were not hers alone.

It was too bad she couldn't have met Sephiroth. She would have liked to meet him, even just once. Before he had changed. Maybe she could have helped him, if they had. Maybe he could have helped her.

Either way, it would have been nice to know she wasn't alone.

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 **9\. Rebirth**

"Sephiroth." Cloud stared at the man in front of him, the man who had been missing for three years.

Cloud had thought he was dead. That this former friend, this destroyer had been dead.

"No…." Tifa wasn't sure why Sephiroth was playing this game with them, why he was pretending to go along with what Cloud said.

He knew the truth as much as she did. And one way or another, it would come out and she could do nothing to stop it.

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 **10\. Line in the sand**

"I will destroy everything."

Cloud stared at Sephiroth, stunned. This wasn't his friend, these words were not his. This was a stranger.

"Sephiroth?"

The man turned to him, his eyes cold.

Cloud's heart sank, it was too late then. He should have pulled Sephiroth away from those books earlier—he knew something had been wrong.

Instead he had failed his friend.

"Sephiroth?"

But it no longer mattered what he did or didn't do. His friend had been lost for a long time and there was no going back.

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 **11\. Curse**

He shouldn't be here. Barret stared around him, at the people he once knew and the home he had lost.

"You." A villager stared at him, disgust in his eyes. "You're back."

A survivor, another person he failed then. He swallowed the shame, the grief, and took a step back.

There were no apologies he could give. He couldn't even say his path had been the right one—in trying to avenge one village, he had destroyed another one.

"Barret." The villager spat out his name like it was a curse.

And maybe, just maybe it was.

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 **12\. Fork in the road**

Dyne stood in front of him, a bitter smile on his face.

It was easy to see the path he took, the path that Barret could have taken. The person he could have been.

But he had Marlene. He had Marlene and he couldn't let himself die, not like this, not here.

Not for this ghost of a man.

"I'm sorry," Barret said, tensing up for a fight. He should have died back then, should be dying now instead of Dyne.

But for Marlene's sake, he would live.

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 **13\. Dreams**

He should have stopped her. He should have done something.

And now he could never forget her face.

For thirty years, Vincent dreamt and even there he could not escape reality.

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 **14\. Return**

Nanki stared up at the red towers, dirty from the sandstorms that swept the place. The moon rose from behind the village, the light from the fires the only thing visible from this distance.

He never thought he'd be back. He had been sure he'd die in the lab.

But here he was again. He was home.

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 **15.** **Letters**

"His girlfriend." Aerith almost cried at the words, at the thought.

Zack had written about her to his parents. Letters upon letters, in the same way she had written to him a hundred times the past three years.

But he hadn't returned and were those words a lie then? She wanted to believe that, that he had played with her heart and now he was somewhere else, living it up with someone else.

It was better than the alternative. Because the Zack she knew, he would never have left his parents like that unless he had died.


End file.
